WASHINGTON -- White House officials tried to pressure U.S. immigration authorities to release detainees onto the streets of "sanctuary cities" to retaliate against President Donald Trump's political adversaries, according to Department of Homeland Security officials and email messages reviewed by The Washington Post.
Trump administration officials have proposed transporting detained migrants to sanctuary cities at least twice in the past six months -- once in November, as a migrant caravan approached the U.S. southern border, and again in February, during a standoff with Democrats over funding for Trump's border wall.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's district in San Francisco was among those the White House wanted to target, according to Homeland Security officials. The administration also considered releasing detainees in other Democratic strongholds.
White House officials first broached the plan in a Nov. 16 email, asking officials at several agencies whether members of the caravan could be arrested at the border and then bused "to small- and mid-sized sanctuary cities," places where authorities have refused to hand over migrants for deportation.
The White House told the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency that the plan was intended to alleviate a shortage of jail space but also served to send a message to Democrats. The attempt at political retribution raised alarm within the immigration agency, with a top official responding that it was rife with budgetary and liability concerns, and noting that "there are PR risks as well."
After the White House pressed again in February, the immigration agency's legal department rejected the idea as inappropriate and rebuffed the administration.
A White House official and a spokesman for Homeland Security sent nearly identical statements to The Washington Post on Thursday, indicating that the proposal is no longer under consideration.
"This was just a suggestion that was floated and rejected, which ended any further discussion," the White House statement said.
Pelosi's office criticized the plan.
"The extent of this administration's cynicism and cruelty cannot be overstated," said Pelosi spokesman Ashley Etienne. "Using human beings -- including little children -- as pawns in their warped game to perpetuate fear and demonize immigrants is despicable."
Trump has made immigration a central aspect of his administration, and he has grown increasingly frustrated at the influx of migrants from Central America.
"These outrageous sanctuary cities are grave threats to public safety and national security," Trump said Dec. 7 in a speech to the Safe Neighborhoods Conference in Kansas City, Mo., less than a month after the White House asked the immigration enforcement agency about moving detainees to such cities. "Each year, sanctuary cities release thousands of known criminal aliens from their custody and right back into the community. So they put them in, and they have them, and they let them go, and it drives you people a little bit crazy, doesn't it, huh?"
The White House believed it could punish Democrats -- including Pelosi -- by busing detainees into their districts before their release, according to two Homeland Security whistleblowers who independently reported the busing plan to Congress. One of the whistleblowers spoke with the Post, and several Homeland Security officials confirmed the accounts. They spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations.
Senior Trump adviser Stephen Miller discussed the proposal with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, according to two Homeland Security officials. Matthew Albence, who is the immigration agency's acting deputy director, immediately questioned the proposal in November and later circulated the idea within his agency when it resurfaced in February, seeking the legal review that ultimately doomed the proposal. Miller and Albence declined to comment Thursday.
Miller's name did not appear on any of the documents reviewed by the Post. But as White House senior adviser on immigration policy, officials at the agency understood that he was pressing the plan.
Trump has been demanding aggressive action to deal with the surge of migrants, and many of his administration's proposals have been blocked in federal court.
Homeland Security officials said the sanctuary city request was unnerving, and it underscores the political pressure Trump and Miller have put on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency and other Homeland Security agencies at a time when the president is trying to stem the biggest border surge in more than a decade.
"It was basically an idea that Miller wanted that nobody else wanted to carry out," said one congressional investigator who has spoken to one of the whistleblowers. "What happened here is that Stephen Miller called people at ICE, said if they're going to cut funding you've got to make sure you're releasing people in Pelosi's district and other congressional districts."
The idea of releasing migrants into sanctuary cities was not presented to Ronald Vitiello, the agency's acting director, according to one Homeland Security official familiar with the plan. Last week the White House rescinded Vitiello's nomination to lead the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, giving no explanation, and Vitiello submitted his resignation Wednesday, ending his 30-year-career.
Trump told reporters the next day that he wanted to put someone "tougher" at the immigration agency. Homeland Security officials said they do not know whether the agency's refusal to adopt the White House's plan contributed to Vitiello's removal. His departure puts Albence in charge of the agency as of today.
Information for this article was contributed by Josh Dawsey of The Washington Post.
A Section on 04/12/2019